masterminis.net - where we learn to be a better painter!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

It is 11 am and I hesitate to wish you all a good morning - but since we still have our Nerdcamp going on here, our daily routine is somewhat 'shifted'. So: "Good morning!" :D

Games Day Rumors VI - Part A

I received a reply from Games Workshop regarding my latest inquiry (see yesterday's post). Unfortunately, it does not really answer anything, but read for yourself:

"Hello Michael

Thank you for your email.

At present we have no information on any of the Games Days, with regards to dates, cancellations etc, however if we do find out anything, we will make sure it is well published on the Games Workshop website and in White Dwarf.

I'm sorry that at this time we cannot be of more assistance, but if there is anything further that you need, please feel free to contact us again."

Now granted it does not say much, but that actually says a lot.

Mail from the Headquarters in Nottingham

We have February right now and I think it is safe to say that events like Spain (which we 'know' to be cancelled) should have been advertized already as it usually was the first GD of the year.

I also take this email quite literally when they write "At present we have no informations on any of the Games Days". I think this is about the best summary of what's going on that I have found so far. Plus, it would be consistent with anything we hear from other sources inside GW. Noone knows.

But at this point let me also take the time to say that I was quite impressed with GW responding in such a fast and all-in-all professional way. I remember times where this was not always the case. If you don't believe me, try sending Forge World an email and wait for a response... FOREVER. Even the Emperor of Mankind could not wait that long.But that's exactly what we have to do now. Wait. And of course, make sure the Big Rumor Mill keeps on turning...

THIS JUST INGames Day Rumors VI - Part B

Modular Tabletop Square Thingies

Usually for Games Days the stores of the hosting country would build and prepared the gaming tables for the show. In recent years, these got less and less interesting, as instead of the creative scratch build masterpieces everything was dulled down as the stores 'had' to use the GW modular tabletop square thingies.

According to a reliable source, all UK stores have been instructed to NOT build any tables for this year's GD as 'another company' would do this for them.

Please read the above sentence again and think about its implications. Now read it one more time. OK. Now continue or you will be caught in an infinite loop.

For Germany I heard a similar story, where one store employee stated that 'we do not know yet, whether we should go ahead and build a display. Noone tells us anything, I don't think they know what's going on, either".

I don't know what to make of it. Best case scenario: GW hired the most awesome Terrain builders from Hollywood to create the biggest badass gaming tables the world has ever seen, OR worst case scenario: GW UK already knows there won't be a GD UK and they don't want their stores to 'waste time'.

Either way, this makes me nervous. In a non-pleasant way.

What do you think? What do you make of it? Do you have some inside source at GW that you could pester for information?

Please leave your comments below.

Painting Buddha DVD - Release Date

The content will be so much hoopier than this! :D

A week or so back I blogged that we would not be able to hit our target of shipping out our first boxes in the first week of March as scheduled. The reason was a clown. No kidding. One of our suppliers surprisingly shut down their operations during 'Karneval', even knowing our deadlines. We got everything else here, ready to ship, but this one part is still missing.

I am still awaiting a final confirmation date on the delivery. We should receive this today or tomorrow. I will keep you updated.

At this point I would like to thank all of you, especially the ones who already ordered our Painting Buddha DVD set for their support. Many of you ordered, not knowing 100% what the final product would look like, what the final box contents would be... Let me assure you - you will NOT be disappointed. We invested heavily in making this box as awesome as possible. More on this, soon (tm).

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

With all of the rumors we have discussed lately, I would like to point out some verifiable facts that might be interesting to all of you who consider visiting Games Day US this year.

But first, the rumors: I had sent Games Workshop an email requesting confirmation on the Games Day dates.

"Dear Sirs,

Recently, there have been a lot of rumors surrounding international Games Day / Golden Demons events.

Rumor has it that the Games Day Spain and France have been cancelled. The status of Germany and Italy are currently said to be uncertain.

We also 'heard' that the US, UK, Japan and Australia Games Days are still scheduled to be held in 2013.

We were wondering if you could confirm the 2013 Games Day event schedule with dates and locations, as many of our blog's readers would like to visit one or more events this year. Our blog at masterminis.net has around 40,000 visitors a month and we would appreciate a reply.

Thank you in advance for your much anticipated response.Best regards and happy painting, "

This was the response I got two days later:

"Hi Michael

Thanks for the email, at the current time we do not have a confirmed date for Games Day 2013, we usually announce the date around April time. As such we would recommend checking the website and White Dwarf around this time for the confirmed date and information.

We hope this helps and apologise we could not provide a exact date.Regards"

I was positively surprised that I got an anwer so quickly. Unfortunately, the email does not really answer anything. I feel like this response only refers to Games Day UK which, traditionally, has been announced around April every year.

So I sent another email, but so far got no answer.

"Hey xxxx,

thank you for your response.

Just to clarify: We are not inquiring about the GD UK, but rather about Germany, Japan and Italy. It is our understanding that Spain, France and Australia have been cancelled.

Can you confirm any of this?

Kind regards, "

Again, so far no response. I will keep you posted as soon as I get an answer. If you would like to read up on all of the rumors, find everything here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.Games Day US

Yeeeehaaaaw!

Some interesting news about the Games Day 2013 for the US. It is NOT going to be in Chicago, as most of you might expect, but it will be in Memphis, Tennessee! YEEEEHAAAAAW!

The Games Day US 2013 will be held on July 27th, 2013.

Now for me this is exciting - I have travelled through US 26 states so far, including Tennessee, but NEVER made it to Memphis. So I am really looking forward to this event and hope I have a chance of going there.

This last weekend, parallel to the Tactica in Hamburg and the Painting Crusade in Brussels, Lugdunum 2013 took place. We did not get to go, but of course we will assemble all of the information we can find for you, so you can be inspired by what seems to be an absolutely highest standard of painting event.

In spite of snow and bad weather many painters found their way to the show and 623 individual entries were assembled. With the standard being rather high, the judges surely did not have it easy ;) Nevertheless, they came up with the winners:

Best of Medusa Painting Challenge: Bruno LAVALLEE (Jourdan Limoges)

Best of History Malerei: Jean-Luc Großhändler für (Jourdan Limoges)

Best of Fantastische Malerei: Murelli Matteo (Italien)

Here are some links to pictures, videos and report from this awesome event. Please check back frequently, as I will update this as soon as I get new links. You can find this event in the Event 2013 menu tab for future reference.

This last weekend, the Painting Crusade X 2013 - with X for its 10th (!) year - took place. Among miniature painters, this event is one of the top events in Europe. Not only will you be able to drool over the works of some of the most talented painters in the world, but you can meet them, talk to them and even PAINT with them!

First, I did not get to go, because I am too busy with our PaintingBuddha.com DVD sets right now. Secondly, the Painting Crusade was on the same weekend as Lugdunum, Lyons and Hamburg's Tactica...

Here are some links to pictures, videos and report from this awesome event. Please check back frequently, as I will update this as soon as I get new links. You can find this event in the Event 2013 menu tab for future reference.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Just 5 more days until the weekend ;) Here is your Monday morning summary of what was going on at masterminis.net last week.

Games Day 2013

If you have missed last weeks posts, I invite you to read up on some of them - especially the rumors surrounding the Games Day 2013 have been what I can only describe as a 'hot topic'.

Many sites all around the world have picked up on our posts and are discussing the future of Games Days across the globe. (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5).

Here is the 'short version' of the rumors and the status of Games Days as far as we THINK it looks right now:

GamesDay UK, US will take place

Games Day France, Spain, Australia cancelled

Games Day Japan, Germany unclear; Italy likely cancelled

Tactica - Lugdunum - Painting Crusade

Last weekend these three awesome events took place. Except for Lugdunum, where we had no 'reporter' we will post a report about Tactica and the Painting Crusade as soon as the footage gets transmitted to us. Expect this for early this week.

Lugdunum and Painting Crusade are some top events for showcase miniature painting whereas Tactica is an event primarily adressing the needs of the gamer nerd heros.

If you have visited any of these events or have posted pictures/videos/blog entries and would like to advertize this here, just leave us a comment below and we will add your site/album to the respective reports.

I have a couple of painting friends over for a 'Nerd Camp' for the next week. This is always great fun as we don't do anything else but talk about miniatures, painting, sculpting and other nerd related stuff while watching DVD series (Game of Thrones)

A couple of beers and brush-powering, nutricious food helps us in the exhausting scientific process that is miniature painting.

Vitamin B and Vitamin P - don't leave home without them...

Nerdcamps are the best :)

Some of the stuff that will be painted this week.

I have three rooms in my apartment. All of them have turned into paintingbuddha.com nerdrooms. I got room for 6-8 painters 'under my bed' (quite literally). Another room for 6 people in what other people would use as a living room. And of course we have our Hollywood-style paintingbuddha.com recording 'studio'. Who needs a sofa? I don't :D Especially not with us building models, painting or - in my case - working on our DVD set videos till 7am in the morning ;)

Matt is overjoyed with... well... joy.REVOLUTIONARY salute to all of you.

First winner of Giveaways receives prize

Slayer Sword winner Matt "Cexwish" and his friend Adam dropped by to help us with some cool Adobe After Effects animations for our paintingbuddha DVD set.

While Matt is a wizard with the brush, Adam is a master of After Effects. After 10 hours of fun with functions we finished some stunning overlays and animations for our first DVD set. It turned out exactly how we envisioned it - and as you know, that's always a satisfying experience.

Matt also was one of the 42 winners of our Giveaway and picked up his prize - a 'The Hobbit' rulebook from Games Workshop. Tears of joy were almost nearly streaming down his face. Almost :D

We are expecting some final information and schedules from our printing company tomorrow regarding our newly designed packaging for our first DVD set. It feels like we have abandoned all plans to make profits on this first DVD and invested in pure awesomeness and more nerdy stuff that we have added to the DVD box.

We will give you additional information on the finalized release and shipping schedule in the next day or two. It will not be the first week of March, but we will not be that far off, either.

We will post some sneak peaks of the miniatures in the next two or three days. As soon as I can take my eyes off them ;)

Friday was an exciting day at the rumor mill (see rumors Part III). All of a sudden an 'official' GD announcement rose to the top of the rumor list.

For us here at masterminis.net it is almost certain that the post in question is NOT about the official Games Day. Unfortunately, neither GW HQ nor the store in Bochum that posted the rumor mill fueling post have responded yet.

Games Day Australia CANCELED as well?

One of our painting bruddhas from Down Under, David Harper, posted the following bits of information on our masterminis.net Facebook page and gave us the green light to also post the information here. He explains the way Australian Games Day used to work (it was a different format from all other countries). The OZ format MIGHT be what we could be facing in all countries as a replacement for Games Day events. Please note I wrote 'might could' - this is just a personal opinion.

"Firstly the Oz Gamesday venue is booked in for September 8th. However a contract has not been signed as of yet so noone knows if it will go ahead at all.

Secondly in previous years before Gamesday made a return we still had Golden Demon competitions. These were entered in your local store and underwent three rounds of judging. Top three in each category from each store were then sent to the head store for each State of the country for a further round of judging. The top three from each state were then sent to Sydney at no cost to the competitor for final judging and awarding of demons.

This system worked reasonably well but was subject to "dodgey" judging. Most store employees can't paint for shit and have no place judging better painters work. The awards ceremonies often were lacklustre affairs with a majority of the winners not even present.

Please feel free to reproduce this on your blog to help inform the international community as to what they might expect this year."

I love to picture how a top-class miniature is sent across the country to HQ for further judging by GW staff. If you ever watched some of them pick up entries when they judge at an event you know what I mean. For me, that's not going to happen.Read KyleM's comments in the last Rumor blog for a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough on how Australia's GD worked. Thanks Kyle!David goes on to confirm that there will be no Games Day in Australia this year.

"I can confirm for you though that there will NOT be an Oz Gamesday this year. Partially because the venue upped the asking price and secondly GW are in the process of reducing staffing levels to one man stores so they have to close their stores so staff can attend Gamesday. Apparently this is temporary and they hope to reintroduce Gamesday next year at a different venue. As for Golden Demon no word yet on whether it will still take place in it's old format or not.

All I can say about this is one word: SAD.

Please note that there is still no official word from GW yet - but more and more it looks like we don't need that to know whats going on.So what is there to do but to say: Happy Sunday! Grab a miniature and PAINT!

Friday, February 22, 2013

I got contacted by three international sources tonight, asking me what I knew about the Games Day 2013 in Germany being held in Bochum on August 1st .

We do not believe this 'news' is true. Please read below for why that is.

Greetings beings, Good news? Or some... well... WEIRD news...

Even Mortarion is likeWTF MATE?

Some international painters asked me whether I knew that the Games Day 2013 Germany had been announced. Check here for GW's official FB event. I did not know about it and checked it out. It looked like an 'official announcement'... BUT... wait.... wuttwutt?

Some weird stuff.

The date set in the post was set for August 1st, 2013. Thursday? Wuttwutt? That can't be right...

It gets even weirder...

The news has been posted on GW Bochum's STORE homepage. The address of the event is Bochum's STORE in a mall-like setting (which knowing other stores 'seats' or rather 'stands' about 20).

So - unless the ONE rumor I thought could not possibly true is true, I don't think that this FB page is the 'official Games Day' Site. (The rumor I discounted for Germany was that Games Workshop replaces the Games Day with In-Store-Competitions like rumored for some other countries. If this really was what GW has in mind to replace the real GD.... I would be presidentially flabberghasted. LOLWUT² So, I don't believe it.)

Herpderpwutt?

LOLWUT? *BLAAAAM*

Right now I am still confused as to why this FB page all of a sudden bubbled up to the top of the rumor list. The event was created by the Bochum store on August 14th 2012. There is no additional information to the FB event posted anywhere. In the German Text on the bottom someone comments on a 'Bus Trip' to the Games Day. As Talarion commented below, it is highly unlikely that this is the 'real thing'. He also thinks that this is just an 'early planning' of this year's bus trip to GD Germany (which we still don't know if, when or where will take place)

Recently, there are so many rumors about Games Day Germany in connection with "Bochum" as a hosting city that I think some people just googled for "Games Day 2013 Bochum" and found the 'official' GW FB page from the Bochum store.

To all international paintersThere are a lot of international painters already on the list that have 'joined' the event - but I personally doubt that either DATE or LOCATION are correct. Just to be absolutely sure, I have left a comment asking for clarification on the GW Bochum FB page. I bet my third arm its just 'a bus trip'.

I think the core problem here is that there is absolutely no information from Games Workshop as of yet. No dates. No locations. Only rumors and confused customers and fans. I hope we can somehow get clarification, soon.This and additional (unconfirmed) rumors from other countries make the rumor mill turn at maximum speed: Spanish GD and France GD have allegedly been replaced with in-store-events labeled 'Games Day'. Maybe someone from Spain and France could confirm this?And another thought came up:

In Australia it is/used to be that there were some 'pre-GD' selections in the stores. Can someone from Australia post a comment about how that worked? Maybe that is the pattern for european GDs now - with a big finale in UK? This is not even a rumor - just a random thought.

So again, if you are an international painter - wait with any bookings or ticket purchases. There are clear signs that this is not even worth to be considered a rumor. More a miscommunication/misunderstanding!

42 Giveaway winners - where are they?First of all, thanks and congratulations to all of you who have sent me an email notifying me that you have won in our giveaways! So far, I received 18 mails from winners. Please note, that I have not replied yet, as I originally wanted to send out all notifications 'in one go'. However, there are still 23 winners missing! So if you have not seen this yet, please check whether you are one of the winners of our 42 giveaways! Carmen, where are you?Here is the list of all winners again:

Everyone who has already sent me an email - please be patient a little longer, I want to gather as many winners as I can as sending out 42 prizes will be a task I would like to 'streamline' as much as possible ;) Thank you for your understanding

Games Day Rumors Update

A lot of you are very interested in the Games Day Rumors (not only because you can win something in that thread).

With regards to rumors, we go some 'good' new ones from Germany: Although it is almost certain that the Games Day this year will NOT be held at the Gürzenich in Cologne, there are some strong signs that there WILL BE a Games Day / Golden Demon event at another venue. It could be in Dortmund or Bochum (both about an hour from Cologne). As soon as we get more news, we will of course share it with you.

As far as Italy is concerned, there are currently no rumors or news that I know of. Well, there was talk about the venue changing as well, but nothing is clear enough yet as to speculate, what's going on there.

My email to Games Workshop has not been answered yet. I am still hopeful that we will receive some 'official word' on the dates and locations of the events. After all, we need to schedule our vacation, don't we ;)

Well, for the time being this is all. As soon as I hear more news, you will post it here, immediately!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Yesterday's post about Rumors of cancelled or possibly relocated Games Days in 2013 has received an unexpected big feedback. It was one of the most read articles ever to be posted on masterminis.net. Thanks to all of you who commented (and thus entered a chance to win a limited Dark Angels Codex).

At this point it seems more than certain that not only the France Games Day but also the Spanish Games Day have been cancelled.

Of course, we got no official word on this, these are still rumors.

So what do I like to do if I want to know something? I ask ;)

So I wrote Games Workshop UK a short email today, asking for clarification of the 2013 Games Day Schedule. I am pretty sure that we will receive an answer - after all it is about us scheduling our trips to these events this year.

This is the email I wrote:

Dear Sirs,

Recently, there have been a lot of rumors surrounding international Games Day / Golden Demons events.

Rumor has it that the Games Day Spain and France have been cancelled. The status of Germany and Italy are currently said to be uncertain.

We also 'heard' that the US, UK, Japan and Australia Games Days are still scheduled to be held in 2013.

We were wondering if you could confirm the 2013 Games Day event schedule with dates and locations, as many of our blog's readers would like to visit one or more events this year. Our blog at masterminis.net has around 40,000 visitors a month and we would appreciate a reply.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The future of Games Day and Golden Demon events is currently more than uncertain. Just in the year we wanted to go to ALL of them for the first time :( This is a summary of all of the rumors I found on the web.

If you haven't heard, here a short summary of the current rumors - there are a lot of rumors out, so what is true and what not still remains to be seen:

No more demons around the globe?

It appears certain that their will be no Games Day France

Games Day Spain should have been announced by now, but it has not

Games Day Germany's venue in Cologne has not been booked by GW yet (needs to be booked a year ahead) and there is talk of either moving to another venue or not having a Games Day at all...

UK and US are said to be still

Italy, Japan and Australia? I have not heard anything yet

At first, I could not believe it. To think that after decades of Games Days, Games Workshop even considers dropping these events - especially since they finally are writing solid profits again - defies my natural sense of business logic.

Money is the root of all evil

The only reason I can see is money - unfortunately not surprising. But knowing that, for example, even though you have to pay 30€ to even get in, thousands of crazed hobbyists gather in Cologne every year to celebrate their nerdieness and their hobby. And they don't go there so they can shop GW minis - they cost the same as in every store and of course more than on the internet.

Most people visit the Games Days for the Golden Demon Competition. Seeing the beautifully and skillfully crafted works of art inspires everyone from 7 years to 99 years of age. Painting miniatures - this is what is at the core of it all is at stake - and nothing less than this.

Pre-GD-Dinner Cologne 2012

International Community & Friendships

Maybe GW does not realize this, but their events have turned into a platform for nerds from across the globe to create the biggest small community there is. And we stick together like superglue. I have met so many incredibly hoopy people at these events and I would just simply miss it. Of course, we would find other ways and other events to meet, but meeting at a Games Day with a mix of comradery and competition was just awesome.

Pre-GD-Dinner UK. Small but great :)

Hundreds of people schedule vacations around these events and look forward to the next one the moment the current one is over. Last year in Cologne, we met with around 100 people from all over the world to our 'pre GD Dinner' one of my personal highlights of 2012. Same happened at GD France, GD UK,...

Shutting down Games Days is not to be taken lightly. The image and reputation of Games Workshop will definitely take a serious hit if that happens. Personally I am just saddened by all these rumors, because for me all of this makes little sense both from a marketing and operational point of view. But worse than that, I already hear a LOT of angry voices out there that claim to no longer buy GW products if this should be true. Well, with emotions running high all of this must be taken with a grain of salt, but in my experience having customers being angry at a company is often times, well, ... not so good.

I love GW, always have, always will. And I will continue to buy their products. But as a whole I fear that GW will become a little less attractive to many people out there, which in turn will hurt GW. And that hurts me.

Forgeworld

3h in line for 2 Angrons. And those I gave away to you! Eurodisney-style crowd control for nerds :DOppa Presman Style

If there is one company I even love more than GW, then it must be Forgeworld. Awesome guys, with awesome product.

In my mind, one of the biggest losers in all of this could be Forgeworld.

If you ever visited a Games Day event, you know that from opening to closing of the event the Forgeworld line was always the longest. Why is that? Well, most people cannot afford to order stuff for 250 pounds (or pay 10% (!!!!) shipping fee) per shot. So hundreds and thousands of people are on a pilgrimage to the Games Day Events so they can buy their favorite items from Forgeworld directly.

Even Angron is angry...

IF all of the rumors are true, then I think Forgeworld needs to revisit their S&H policies. Otherwise I fear they will sell less. Their 'visibility' and 'exposure' in the market is defined by two things: Showing their awesome designs at Games Days and - much more importantly - being able to admire the work of some of the best painters in the world use their miniatures.

I have been guilty of buying literally hundreds (sigh) of FW miniatures because some GD project has inspired me. Of course, they are all safely stowed away in many a box, but you know what I mean.

So, what if it is true

Well, if it is true, than I will add this experience to the stack of similar 'I am mindboggled beyond reason' experiences. If push comes to shove, there could be as little as four Games Day Events in the world. Maybe even just two or three.

Quo Vadis, GW? Hope you have a cover save...

Cancelling GD UK won't happen, or I will eat all of my FW miniatures.

Cancelling GD US seems like a similarly silly suicide move as well.

Cancelling GD Japan - well, with a hand full of stores and extremely high prices in Japan I am not sure if that is the one market/GD I would keep - but for personal reasons, I hope Japan will have a GD this year, for I long to return to the country I miss so much.

GD Australia: Doubt it will be cancelled, them 'roos are gonna punch everyone who tries.

So that leaves France, Spain, Italy and Germany. So let's say except for UK everything gets cancelled. I doubt that everyone will fly to Birmingham to get their dose of dorkness. I will, but then again, I always have.

So what do YOU think?

What do you think?

Which events did you use to go to?

How would a decision by GW to cancel events impact you and your relationship with GW?

Do you think this makes sense?

Do you care?

Leave a comment below and WIN a THIRD copy of the Limited Dark Angels Codex from Games Workshop. Winners will be drawn on April 1st, fools! There are two more chances to win a codex, namely here and here.